Chopping up a storm

When I went shopping last weekend I had a clear list and a limited amount to spend. One of the ways I saved was by buying the fresh vegetables on offer and then chopping them up to put in the freezer.

I bought 1 month's worth for each, celery at 29p a bunch and peppers at 79p for 500g. The celery worked fine, wash and chop and then put straight into freezer bags. This is good for 2 months in stir fries and casseroles. I am torn between the idea of making a large saving and just going to buy a year's supply at that price since it is so cheap and knowing how much work blanching that amount of celery would be. The thing is that beyond 2 months celery does not keep so well in the freezer and needs to be 'blanched' or boiled for a few minutes and then reapply cooled. This is not so much work for 1 head of celery but for 12? I am still thinking about it.

Similarly with peppers. The price for the ready frozen ones used to be 1 pounds a kilo, now it is still 1 pounds but you only get half the amount at 500g ! So when I spotted fresh peppers at 79p for 500g I thought that I would chop them myself. This did not work out so well. For a start the big was not 500g when I got home only 487g, then once I had chopped them up the amount of pepper I was left with was also rather less. Perhaps I will carry on buying the ready frozen variety !

The last offer was 45p a kg for carrots. This is less than half price compared to the bargain frozen and fresh vegetable. I have bought 1 packet to use this week and I'm going to think about whether to go back for more as carrots need blanching as well !